Box-seal.



E. J. BRooKs.

Box SEAL. 4 APPLIUATION FILED 11.1.1119, 1909 -l 925,450. Patented June 22, 1909.

lili/11111171111 w [bij N UNITED sTATEs EATENT oEErcE.

H EDWARD J. BROOKS, OF EAST ORANGE, NEW JERSEY.

Box-snail.`

To all 'whom it may concern:

Beit knownv that I, EDWARD J. BEooxs, a citizen of the United States of America, and a resident of East Orange, in the State of New Jersey, have invented a new and useful boxes so as to insure the detection of any opening thereof for the abstraction of they contents.I

Heretofore it has been customary to unite the seal part and box strap and to complete the sealing operation by means of a nail driven throug the seal art and strap ends,

` or through thelatter at east, into the wood of the box. This necessitated the location side of the box to provide sufficient depth of wood to receive the nail.

of the seal part onthe box over an end or Examples of such box seals are set forth in my` previous specification forming part of United States Letters Patent No. 847276 dated March 12, 1907, and previous specifii cationsthereini'referred to, and in my `companion specification forming part of anap lication for United States Letters Patent fi ed March 3, 1909, SerialNo. 481201'.

The leading objects of the present invent1on are to render such box seals nailless, and thus to provide for using a single box strap if desired with a single seal part located centrally on the box cover or on the bottom or one of the ends or sides, or in any desired position, without endangering the contents of the box at the sealing operation.

Otherobjects will be set forth in the general description which follows.

The invention consists in a nailless box seal, as hereinafter more scrlbed and claimed.

`A sheet of drawings accompanies this speciiication as part thereof.

Figure 1 is a perspective view of a box sealed according to the present invention; Fig. 2 is a face view of the metallic seal part represented in Fig. 1 as it appears before being used; Fig. 3 represents a section on the line A-B, Fig. 2 Figs. 4 and 5 are fragmenn tary sectional views illustrating the sealing Specification of Letters Patent.

Application led March 19, 1909.

particularly de- Patented June 22, 1909.

Serial N0. 484,347.

operation; and Fig. 6 re resents a magnified section through the sea part and boxstrap as they appear after the sealing operation.`

Like reference characters refer to like parts in all the figures. i In carrying this invention into effect, a metallic seal part, a, and a metallic box strap, b, are employed in connection with a wooden box cover or like box part, c, and with a box-strap tool or tightener, parts of which are represented at d, c and f, in Figs. 4 and 5, and a suitable sealing tool, g, Fig. 5, which may be an ordinary nail unch having a suitable point, but is preferab y of the construction represented in Fig. 5 and hereinafter described. The seal part a, shown detached in Figs. 2 and and magnified in Fig.

`6, is of a construction shown at Figs. 7 and 8 in my drawings forming part of said Letters Patent No. 847276, and its construction forms no part of the present invention. lt may be described, however, as disk shaped and composedof` two pieces,`1 and 2, of suitable sheet metal permanently united with each other by a circumferential joint, 3', which adapts the seal art to be made with a bottoni, 4', immediate y above which a `pair of threading holes, 1 and 2, are formed `in the sides of the cup-shaped bottom piece. 2 of the seal part. For the purposes of the resent invention the seal part a, may `be o any known or improved construction adapting it to embrace the ends of the box strap l), and to provide a portion (4') parallel with the box-strap ends adapted to be interlocked therewith and with the box. part c in the manner hereinafter described. The box strap b may be cut from a continuous length of suitable strap iron, and requires no preliminary treatment.

The tightener represented in Figs. 4 and 5 is or may be of the construction set forth in said companion specification (Serial No. 481201), and the parts represented in Figs. 4 and 5 are the slotted shaft of the tool, represented at d; a cross bar of the frame beneath said shaft, represented at c, and a cross bar at the front edge of the frame, represented at f. For the purposes of the present invention said cross bar c beneath the winding shaft may be provided with a spur, 3, which is driven through one of the box-strap ends into the wooden box part c to preliminarily and temporarily fasten that box-strap end for the tightening operation. Otherwise the tool may be of the construction set forth in said companion specification (Serial No. 481201), or of any suitable known or improved construction.

he sealing tool g, represented in Fig. 5, includes a cu -shaped base, 4, which embraces the sea part a, and rests on the box strap b and box part c, and a vertically slidable plunger, 5, the lower end of which has a sharpy tapered point, 6, with a cylindrical portion, 7, immediately above the same, and preferably a stop shoulder, 8, by which the penetration of the point is limited. The separation of these two parts, 4 and 5, is prevented by suitable means represented by a cross pin, 9, and a coiled retracting spring, 10, is preferably and conveniently located immediately above the base and beneath a shoulder of the plunger so as to retain the latter normally in the position in which it is shown in full lines in Fig. 5.

After passing the box-strapv l) loosely around the box (Fig. 1) in the desired position, both box-strap ends are threaded through the seal part a. The tightener d e-f is then applied so as to drive its spur 3 through one end of the box strap into the wood of the box part c, and thus to preliminarily fasten one of the box-strap ends for the stretching operation. The other boxstrap end, being uppermost, is drawn beneath the front cross bar f of thetightener, and temporarily interlocked with the shaft cl by threading it through the slot of the latter and bending its extremity to resist withdrawal as represented in Fig. 4. The shaft d is then'turned in the direction represented by the arrow a', Fig. 4, until the box-strap l) is under sufficient tension to embed it in the box corners, at least, as set forth in said companion speciiication.

With the box strap l) under such tension, and the seal part a in the desired position, the sealing tool g is applied as in Fig. 5, and a blow on the plunger g by means of a hammer or the like drives the piercing point 6 and cylindrical shank 7 of the sealing tool through i the two strap-ends, and through the Subj acent seal part portion 4', and completes the sealing operation. The stroke of the sealingsaid seal-part portion 4 parallel therewith are simultaneously made to project rigidly downwardat right-angles to the top of the box part c, ,and to interlock with each other around an em ty permanent indentation Vin the wood of t e box part, so as to securely seal the box without the aid of nails driven through the seal part and box-strap ends as heretofore considered necessary. A single sealed box strap may in this manner be located midway between the ends of the box as in Fig. 1, or midway between the top and bottom of the box, as there is no seal nail to be driven through the cover into the ends as heretofore. The box-strap and seal part may also, of course, be otherwise arranged and duplicated if desired. The indentation by which one box-strap end is preliminarily fastened as above described is represented at 14 in Fig. 1, and the empty permanent indentation left in thewood by the sealing tool g is represented at 15 in Fig. 6.

As already stated, the seal part a, the tightener d-eand the sealing tool g or any of them may be of any suitable known or improved construction; and other like modifications will suggest themselves tothose skilled in the art.

Having thus described said improvement, 'I claim as my invention and desire to patent under this specification:

The combination with a wooden box and a superposed metallic box strap under tension, having overlapped ends, of a metallic seal partV embracing the overlapped ends of said box strap and having a ortion parallel with said box-strap'ends, said) said portion of the seal part parallel therewith having locking portions projecting rigidly at right angles to the subjacent surface of the box, and interlocked with each other around an empty permanent indentation in the wood of the box whereby a nailless box seal is formed.

lEDWARD J. BROOKS.

Witnesses:

J. T. MGALLIsTER, E. J. SMITH. 

